1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates generally to telephone communication systems, and more particularly, the present invention relates to a simultaneous telephone ring system and method.
2. Description of the Related Art
Trends such as telecommuting, virtual offices, contract employment, etc. have led to the proliferation of both land-based and cellular phone services. It is not uncommon for a person to have different telephone numbers at their corporate office, their home office, their home, and one or more cell phone numbers. Callers are therefore often required to dial multiple numbers in order to reach a person. This is not only a waste of time, but expensive. A number of prior xe2x80x9csimultaneous ringxe2x80x9d systems have been proposed.
One type of known simultaneous ring system relies on an Advanced Intelligent Network (AIN), which is a computer (or set of computers) that is integrated into the (typically Signaling System Seven (SS7)) control network of a phone company. For example at Cincinnati Bell Telephone, an AIN system has been programmed to implement a simultaneous ring service. When a call to a telephone number with the simultaneous ring service is placed on the SS7 telephone network, the AIN looks up the associated target telephone numbers in a database and rings each number. If one of the phones is answered, a talk path is established and the calls to the other target telephone numbers are terminated. This arrangement, however, has several drawbacks. AIN systems are very expensive, complicated, and difficult to maintain. The AIN system also has to be integrated into the SS7 telephone network and therefore has to be implemented by the phone company.
Another type of known simultaneous ring system relies on a PBX or some other type of central switching device which associates one or more target phone numbers with an incoming telephone number. When a telephone call on the incoming number is received, the central switching device places a call to each of the target phone numbers. If one of the target phone numbers is answered, a link through the switching device to the target number is established. This arrangement, which is sometimes referred to as xe2x80x9cconferencingxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9cbridgingxe2x80x9d, requires the central switch to maintain the link for the entire duration of the telephone call. Consequently conferencing or bridging is expensive because phone service charges are accrued during the entire duration of the phone call.
A simultaneous ring system and method that connects to a telephone company network over a standard end-user service line and which performs a call transfer using the telephone company network when a connection is made with a target phone number, thereby avoiding conferencing or bridging, is therefore needed.
The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for providing simultaneous ring services for a telephone number associated with an end-user line of a telephone network. The system includes a simultaneous ring system configured to couple the incoming caller line to the answering (or default) end-user line of the telephone network. In response to receiving an incoming call on the user-line, the simultaneous ring system simultaneously rings target phone numbers associated with the telephone number and then transfers the telephone call to the telephone network if a connection to one of the target phone numbers is made. If a connection is not made (i.e., the call is not answered), the incoming call is transferred to the user""s default target, which is typically their Voice Mail. These and other advantages of the present invention will become apparent upon reading the following detailed descriptions and studying the various figures of the drawings.